Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PivotBuoy (PivotBuoy - An Advanced System for Cost-effective and Reliable Mooring, Connection, Installation & Operation of Floating Wind)
Berichtszeitraum: 2019-04-01 bis 2020-09-30
To achieve the targets set in Paris the EU needs to tap upon its most promising renewable resource, offshore wind energy, where the resource is not only larger, but stronger and more consistent. More than 80% of the offshore wind resource is located in deep waters, with an estimated potential of 4.000GW (Carbon Trust, 2015. Floating Offshore Wind: Market and Technology Review) an remains almost completely untap.
The overarching project objective is to develop and validate an advanced system (PivotBuoy® ) to harvest floating wind efficiently, reducing its LCOE by 50%. This will make floating offshore wind electricity competitive with non-renewables generation technologies enabling its widespread adoption, key to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
PivotBuoy will achieve this by improving in key elements when compared with the state of the art floating wind solutions. It will be lighter, reduce mooring and anchor spread, improve the electrical connection, reduce installation costs, increase reliability and maintainability, improve scalability, and minimize the environmental impact.
One of the project drivers has been to design a system which can be assembled, installed and maintained using only local supply chain, in order to reduce costs and increase scalability as well as having a positive impact in the local economy, helping their industry to pivot into more sustainable business models while contributing to decarbonize the local electrical mix. The success of another European project in offshore wind will help to consolidate the global lead of the EU in this booming market, bringing an opportunity for the whole European supply chain.